We had this show in the Netherlands (it was created here) so I know a bit about the format.
It is a music talent show but quite different from American Idol or X Factor. The first stage are the auditions. What is important to remember about the auditions is this:
* The auditions are blind, meaning that the judges do not face the contestants while they are performing and have to make a selection solely based on a contestant's voice (hence the name of the show). The judges sit in rotating chairs and when one of them hears a voice he/she likes, he/she presses the "I Want You" button (which automatically means that the contestant goes through to the next round). Then, the chair rotates and the judge will see the contestant he/she has chosen. When the contestant is chosen by more than one judge, the contestant decides who he/she will choose to guide him/her. However, a contestant can only choose between those judges who pressed the "I Want You" button. Each judge can select 14 contestants during the audition rounds.
* The televised auditions are preceded by several strict rounds of non-televised auditions. Thus, the show starts at a relatively high level and every contestant that auditions can actually sing. So there are no more losers with terrible voices that only audition to come on TV. In the case of the NL, there were a few thousand who auditioned in the first round (via webcam mostly) and after the pre-selection there were only around 150 that appeared in front of the judges of the televised show.
* The contestants audition with a live band and audience.
* There are no judges but "coaches", which is a very important distinction between The Voice and e.g. American Idol. The coaches are established artists themselves who will take on the responsibility to guide their selected contestants during the show and after. There is only constructive criticism, no mean comments.
* The final round of auditions is the Wildcard. Here, two candidates battle against each other on the radio every day for 4 days (so 8 candidates participate in total) and the listeners vote on who wins the battle. The 4 contestants who won the radio battles also go though to the next round (coaches decide with which contestant they want to work).
Example of The Voice audition:
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After the auditions comes the second round, namely the battle. In this round, the coaches each have to narrow down their own number of contestants from 14 to 7. This is done by pitting them against each other in duos, and each time only 1 of them goes through. For example, imagine Christina Aguilera has selected 14 candidates after the auditions. Only half of them can go through. Suppose one of the 14 contestants is called John and one is called Pete. John and Pete then have to battle against each other (by both singing a section of the same song, chosen by the coach) and whoever performs best, wins the battle. Christina herself decides who will battle against whom (as their might be candidates who are too similar to each other to let them both go through) and Christina decides who will go though. Throughout the whole show, the coaches are only responsible for their own contestants (i.e. Christina can't send one of Adam's contestants home) although they do give feedback to the other contestants. After the battle round, each coach has 7 contestant left. However, he/she can only take 6 contestants along for the next round (live shows). Therefore, the battle round ends with a sing off, where two of the 7 selected contestants (about whom the coach is the least confident) battle against each other and one of them leaves. In the NL version, the battles took place in a boxing ring.
Example of a battle in The Voice:
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Then come the final round, the liveshows. Of course, since there are (4x6) 24 contestants left, it is too much to fit into one show. Therefore, the show is divided into two parts: one week, the contestants of two coaches sing (e.g. those of Christina and Adam) and the next week, the contestants of the other two coaches sing. All coaches are present though at every live show and provide feedback. At the end of each liveshow, two contestants have to leave (one from each coach). This decision is made by the coach, not the audience (voting only comes into play at the final). The coach decides who must go by selecting two of his/her own contestants and pitting them against each other. Both have to sing their song again and then the coach decides who of them should leave. Again, this decision is made only by the coach who is responsible for the respective contestants, so e.g. Adam has no say over Christina's contestants. When enough contestants have left, the two groups are joint together and all sing in one show (i.e. all remaining contestants of the 4 coaches). Another important characteristic of the liveshows is that contestants sing with their coaches and with other artists. Also, every liveshow has guest performances by other artists. In the NL there were e.g. Adele, Bruno Mars, Take That, etc. In the final, there will be 4 contestants left (one from each coach) and the public is solely responsible for chosing a winner. This is done in two ways: voting and downloading. The latter plays an important role because in the week prior to the final, each contestant records and sings his/her own single (so not a cover). This is put on iTunes for people to download and each download counts for 2 votes (IIRC). So the position of a contestant's single on the iTunes chart is already an indication of who might win.
Example of live show The Voice:
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^ As you can see the contestants also sing duets.
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I hope this explains it a bit :lol:
